posted
Good hair: Getting back to our roots Written By: Tuala Williams
Black women celebrate the trend back to natural hair
HOUSTON- Hundreds of women convened at the Nzuri ‘Just Keeping It Real’ Natural Hair Show, held in the Power Center in Houston, to discuss issues of “good” and “bad” hair, self-esteem and identity. The show, hosted by Leola Anifowoshe of The Healthy Hair Society, featured a lengthy panel discussion, a hair show and a “Happyheaded Pageant” for children intended to celebrate the trend back to natural Black hair.
The elaborate lengths Black women will go to in effort to beautify their hair is nothing new to the Black culture. According to Esi Sagay of the magazine, African Hairstyles, “Africans rarely leave the hair or the body in their simple, natural state but spend a considerable amount of time and energy on grooming and self-adornment. The hair has always been accorded particular attention.”
According to African-American studies professor Sonja Peterson-Lewis from Temple University in PA, Africans kidnapped from their native land and sold into slavery, were separated from their culture and the tools, oils and herbs, which allowed them to maintain healthy hair. Without the ability to properly groom their hair, it became kinky and matted- “nappy.”
Now obsolete, in 1550, the definition of the word “nappy” was “foaming.” This phrase, used to describe the hair of African slaves, has since become taboo to many who view it as a way to further stigmatize Black hair.
“Hair is always a metaphor of the deeper racial issues we don’t deal with in this country, issues like internalized racial superiority and internalized racial inferiority,” says Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, director of the New York based, Urban Bush Women dance troupe. As a response to the issue, in 1993, Zollar began writing “Hair Stories” – a series of dances based on the Black hair identity, which premiered in 2001.
“Good” and “bad” hair has always been an issue in the Black community, and especially for Black women. For years, beauty has been associated with having long, bone straight hair, similar to that of White women, and those who were born with it held a coveted place in Black society.
Thus, the tightly coiled hair, unique to Blacks, was considered as “bad” hair, a thing of shame, causing women to hide their natural hair beneath scarves, hats and wigs. To manage their coarse, kinky hair, Blacks groomed their hair with combs used for sheep’s wool and used butter, bacon grease and goose oil to grease their scalps.
They also used a combination of potatoes and lye to straighten their hair, but this concoction burned the scalp severely, causing balding in many women.
In 1900, Annie Turnbo Malone invented the pressing comb and other hair care products designed to strengthen Black hair. By the 1920’s, Malone, (who competes with her protégé, Madame C. J. Walker for the title as first female millionaire) had amassed $14 million from her hair care products aimed at taming the Black mane.
Walker (originally Sara Breedlove Walker) had sold Malone’s products, but later took her idea to another level, creating a chemical designed to permanently relax Black hair and others aimed at improving the health and manageability of the hair. But the goal of perming was not only to make the hair more manageable; it was also to make it more acceptable to society.
In America and other countries under European influence, beauty has been typically associated with having traditionally White features, regardless of ethnicity. However, during the 1960’s and 1970’s, African-American men and women were encouraged by Black revolutionaries and Rastafarians to appreciate their natural hair, embracing locks, braids, cornrows (in which the hair is braided to the scalp) and afros.
But with integration came the resurgence of Black’s desire for acceptance by the White community. Thus, Blacks began to emulate Whites once more, longing to distance themselves from anything that might appear to be a threat to prospective employers.
As a result, most surrendered their braids, shunned their afros and retreated to the safety of permed hair.
Asha Mandela, a panelist at the Nzuri hair show, knows all to well about the controversy between natural versus permed hair. During a period when permed hair was the only acceptable norm for Black women, she chose to lock hers. At that time, this style of hair, associated with Rastafarians, was considered dirty and unattractive.
However, for Mandela, locking her hair was not about making a statement. It was a matter of convenience. At the time, she was working as a nanny in Brooklyn. The chemical perming, styling and rigor involved with Black hair care became a hassle. She decided to lock her hair, a huge commitment. Like most Black women, says she had always had a perm and enjoyed creating new hairstyles.
“It was a tough one. I had to sort things out in my head to make sure this is what I really wanted to do, especially because it sort of has an unkempt look when you first start,” says Mandela, who chose to cut off all her long hair to remove the perm. She says she wore a wig for three months before her hair grew to a length she was comfortable with.
Mandela said she had always admired Rastafarian women, perceiving them as strong, and appreciated their lifestyle. Although not Rastafarian, she believed her perception of them influenced her decision. But she stood alone.
She says another concern was what others, especially her mother, would think. “I’m originally from the Caribbeans and even though there’s a lot of Rastafarians in the Caribbeans, that doesn’t mean it is accepted.”
Sure enough, her mother was very unhappy with the change. “I can’t believe after I took time and groomed your hair really nice this is what you want to do, walk around looking like a scruffy riffraff mop,’” she said her mother told her. “The daughter I raised is not supposed to be looking like that. You just look homeless and like riffraff.”
But Mandela refused to go back. Today, Mandela’s long tresses extend beyond her feet, dragging the ground, when not wrapped around her body or tied in a “sack.” For over 21 years, she says she never cut her hair.
Mandela has become an unintentional spokeswoman for natural hair, receiving invitations for interviews and endorsements from all over the country. She says the journey has been a spiritual experience for her and encourages all women to embrace the beauty of their natural hair. Today, women from all walks of life embrace natural hairstyles for a number of reasons.
Among these is the desire to escape the chemical process that has created balding problems for many, others cite convenience. Likewise, the perception has changed, causing Black women who go natural to be perceived as successful women of strength and confidence.
-------------------- "TRUTH IS LIKE LIGHTNING WITH ITS ERRAND DONE BEFORE YOU HEAR THE THUNDER" - Gerald Massey "TRUTH IS FINAL" -Mumia Abu-Jamal Posts: 3446 | From: U.S. by way of JA by way of Africa | Registered: Jan 2010
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posted
I'm glad I don't have hair issues. I wonder what kind of life it is to live in paranoia because of hair.
Posts: 2088 | Registered: Feb 2007
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posted
if white people and straight hair never existed would the technique of straightening afro hair have been found and be used as a style?
Posts: 42935 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
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posted
I wouldn't do her because I am Muslim, but she is attractive. I personally find nappy hair ugly, natural or relaxed. Rasta style is cool however.
Posts: 53 | From: Iran | Registered: Oct 2007
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quote:Originally posted by the lioness: if white people and straight hair never existed would the technique of straightening afro hair have been found and be used as a style?
^Yeah but for different reasons. Afro hair is versatile able to do many things so with the availability and influence of modernity the straightening of hair still would have been there.
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quote:Originally posted by HornAfrican: Nappy hair is gross, specially on a woman
^Nappy hair can look very gross when it's not taken care of. When it's clean and groom properly it accentuate black people's skin and features better, much better than straighten and false hair and braids.
Posts: 2088 | Registered: Feb 2007
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posted
I agree, if well kept, does accentuate Negro features. Negroes have raw, full facial features. An afro is the ideal hair style for those features. Straight hair does not move well with those features. Straight hair moves better with elongated and refined facial features.
A common example we all see in the streets is these silly Negro women perming or wearing extensions to their hair. The movement of lines for thick nose and lips do not conform to free flowing, straight hair. You know, you really learn all this in art. Movement of lines are easier on the eyes when they are all in the same direction, hence, long, straight hair with thin nose and lip and face.
Exaggerated facial features, e.g., full nose, lip and roundish face and eye socket, pull the eyes horizontally. An afro moves in that direction, which makes it easier on the viewer's eyes. Straight hair on a raw African face causes the eye of the viewer to strain (the brain interprets this signal as "ugliness"), because it attempts to view vertically and horizontally simultaneously. This is why behind these Negro women's back, people laugh. Black women look clownish when they do that to their hair.
quote:Originally posted by Bettyboo: ^Nappy hair can look very gross when it's not taken care of. When it's clean and groom properly it accentuate black people's skin and features better, much better than straighten and false hair and braids. [/QB]
posted
^ Best i've seen on the net for lots of anthropological data on the races. I thought this would interest you.
Everything though has turned out rather ironic as the civilization chapter conclusion shows -
quote:One might think that Caucasians, as the most accomplished race, would increase in numbers while the numbers of the less accomplished races declined. After all, doesn’t accomplishment equal better adaptation, which equals more reproductive success? Not necessarily, because exactly the reverse is occurring. The white race, which was 25% of the world’s population in 1900, was only about 8 to 10% in 2005, and the percentage of whites has continued to decline. Ironically, it is the accomplishments and sacrifices of whites that have made the vast expansion of the other races possible
Posts: 2408 | From: My mother's basement | Registered: Dec 2010
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quote:Originally posted by Confirming Truth: [QB] I agree, if well kept, does accentuate Negro features. Negroes have raw, full facial features. An afro is the ideal hair style for those features. Straight hair does not move well with those features. Straight hair moves better with elongated and refined facial features.
Couldn't agree more with you. The odd thing is though, Australoids who also have prognathic and primitive facial features, have wavy-straight hair. Its looks very bizarre on them, because as you say their faces aren't suited for it.
^ Hard to tell if this is a male or female. But the broad facial features look very wierd with the wavy-straight hair.
Posts: 2408 | From: My mother's basement | Registered: Dec 2010
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What ah way some luc-ky bad bad bad that I am not a mod... Posts: 3446 | From: U.S. by way of JA by way of Africa | Registered: Jan 2010
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quote:Originally posted by HornAfrican: Nappy hair is gross, specially on a woman
^Nappy hair can look very gross when it's not taken care of.
As usual, you sound like an eediat.
ANY AND ALL GRAIN/TEXTURE OF HAIR will look nasty when it's not taken care of properly (ie., KEPT CLEAN)....
Posts: 3446 | From: U.S. by way of JA by way of Africa | Registered: Jan 2010
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quote:Originally posted by IronLion: Original Cock-sucker, Original Cock-sucker, Original Cock-sucker, Original Cock-sucker:
Yuh dun know CAH-SH*T-HE-RIDES and CONFIRMED EEDIAT-BWOY ah suck and ah f*ck out one anodda tripe fram long time....di both ah dem ah sh*t-up hood mout p*ssyhole weh nah guh nowey ina life...
Some people ah try hype up demselves but hypeness nuh fit dem
-
Posts: 3446 | From: U.S. by way of JA by way of Africa | Registered: Jan 2010
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quote: Good hair: Getting back to our roots Written By: Tuala Williams
Black women celebrate the trend back to natural hair
HOUSTON- Hundreds of women convened at the Nzuri ‘Just Keeping It Real’ Natural Hair Show, held in the Power Center in Houston, to discuss issues of “good” and “bad” hair, self-esteem and identity. The show, hosted by Leola Anifowoshe of The Healthy Hair Society, featured a lengthy panel discussion, a hair show and a “Happyheaded Pageant” for children intended to celebrate the trend back to natural Black hair.
The elaborate lengths Black women will go to in effort to beautify their hair is nothing new to the Black culture. According to Esi Sagay of the magazine, African Hairstyles, “Africans rarely leave the hair or the body in their simple, natural state but spend a considerable amount of time and energy on grooming and self-adornment. The hair has always been accorded particular attention.”
According to African-American studies professor Sonja Peterson-Lewis from Temple University in PA, Africans kidnapped from their native land and sold into slavery, were separated from their culture and the tools, oils and herbs, which allowed them to maintain healthy hair. Without the ability to properly groom their hair, it became kinky and matted- “nappy.”
Now obsolete, in 1550, the definition of the word “nappy” was “foaming.” This phrase, used to describe the hair of African slaves, has since become taboo to many who view it as a way to further stigmatize Black hair.
“Hair is always a metaphor of the deeper racial issues we don’t deal with in this country, issues like internalized racial superiority and internalized racial inferiority,” says Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, director of the New York based, Urban Bush Women dance troupe. As a response to the issue, in 1993, Zollar began writing “Hair Stories” – a series of dances based on the Black hair identity, which premiered in 2001.
“Good” and “bad” hair has always been an issue in the Black community, and especially for Black women. For years, beauty has been associated with having long, bone straight hair, similar to that of White women, and those who were born with it held a coveted place in Black society.
Thus, the tightly coiled hair, unique to Blacks, was considered as “bad” hair, a thing of shame, causing women to hide their natural hair beneath scarves, hats and wigs. To manage their coarse, kinky hair, Blacks groomed their hair with combs used for sheep’s wool and used butter, bacon grease and goose oil to grease their scalps.
They also used a combination of potatoes and lye to straighten their hair, but this concoction burned the scalp severely, causing balding in many women.
In 1900, Annie Turnbo Malone invented the pressing comb and other hair care products designed to strengthen Black hair. By the 1920’s, Malone, (who competes with her protégé, Madame C. J. Walker for the title as first female millionaire) had amassed $14 million from her hair care products aimed at taming the Black mane.
Walker (originally Sara Breedlove Walker) had sold Malone’s products, but later took her idea to another level, creating a chemical designed to permanently relax Black hair and others aimed at improving the health and manageability of the hair. But the goal of perming was not only to make the hair more manageable; it was also to make it more acceptable to society.
In America and other countries under European influence, beauty has been typically associated with having traditionally White features, regardless of ethnicity. However, during the 1960’s and 1970’s, African-American men and women were encouraged by Black revolutionaries and Rastafarians to appreciate their natural hair, embracing locks, braids, cornrows (in which the hair is braided to the scalp) and afros.
But with integration came the resurgence of Black’s desire for acceptance by the White community. Thus, Blacks began to emulate Whites once more, longing to distance themselves from anything that might appear to be a threat to prospective employers.
As a result, most surrendered their braids, shunned their afros and retreated to the safety of permed hair.
Asha Mandela, a panelist at the Nzuri hair show, knows all to well about the controversy between natural versus permed hair. During a period when permed hair was the only acceptable norm for Black women, she chose to lock hers. At that time, this style of hair, associated with Rastafarians, was considered dirty and unattractive.
However, for Mandela, locking her hair was not about making a statement. It was a matter of convenience. At the time, she was working as a nanny in Brooklyn. The chemical perming, styling and rigor involved with Black hair care became a hassle. She decided to lock her hair, a huge commitment. Like most Black women, says she had always had a perm and enjoyed creating new hairstyles.
“It was a tough one. I had to sort things out in my head to make sure this is what I really wanted to do, especially because it sort of has an unkempt look when you first start,” says Mandela, who chose to cut off all her long hair to remove the perm. She says she wore a wig for three months before her hair grew to a length she was comfortable with.
Mandela said she had always admired Rastafarian women, perceiving them as strong, and appreciated their lifestyle. Although not Rastafarian, she believed her perception of them influenced her decision. But she stood alone.
She says another concern was what others, especially her mother, would think. “I’m originally from the Caribbeans and even though there’s a lot of Rastafarians in the Caribbeans, that doesn’t mean it is accepted.”
Sure enough, her mother was very unhappy with the change. “I can’t believe after I took time and groomed your hair really nice this is what you want to do, walk around looking like a scruffy riffraff mop,’” she said her mother told her. “The daughter I raised is not supposed to be looking like that. You just look homeless and like riffraff.”
But Mandela refused to go back. Today, Mandela’s long tresses extend beyond her feet, dragging the ground, when not wrapped around her body or tied in a “sack.” For over 21 years, she says she never cut her hair.
Mandela has become an unintentional spokeswoman for natural hair, receiving invitations for interviews and endorsements from all over the country. She says the journey has been a spiritual experience for her and encourages all women to embrace the beauty of their natural hair. Today, women from all walks of life embrace natural hairstyles for a number of reasons.
Among these is the desire to escape the chemical process that has created balding problems for many, others cite convenience. Likewise, the perception has changed, causing Black women who go natural to be perceived as successful women of strength and confidence.
quote:Originally posted by HornAfrican: Nappy hair is gross, specially on a woman
Well said. But aren't you black?
Another self-hater?
I'm black yes but I don't have nappy hair. And if I don't find certain trait in blacks doesn't mean I have self-hate. I am not mix with any thing too.
Posts: 53 | From: Iran | Registered: Oct 2007
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quote:Originally posted by HornAfrican: Nappy hair is gross, specially on a woman
^Nappy hair can look very gross when it's not taken care of. When it's clean and groom properly it accentuate black people's skin and features better, much better than straighten and false hair and braids.
Agreed. For example Grace Jones and Erika Badu types look beautiful
Posts: 53 | From: Iran | Registered: Oct 2007
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posted
The northern coastal aborigines are “tall, dark, less hairy, and very lanky.” (Howells, 1959, p. 326).lol
Autosomal microsatellite variability of the Arrernte people of Australia
M. A. Alfonso-Sánchez1,2, A. M. Pérez-Miranda1,2, R. J. Herrera1,*
Article first published online: 23 OCT 2007
DOI: 10.1002/ajhb.20685
American Journal of Human Biology Volume 20, Issue 1, pages 91–99,
Abstract
The genomic diversity of the Arrernte people of Australia or caterpillar people was investigated utilizing 13 autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) markers. Significant departures from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium were detected at the D18S51, TPOX and CSF1PO loci, which persisted after applying the Bonferroni correction. Gene diversity values oscillate between 0.6302 (CSF1PO) and 0.8731 (D21S11). Observed heterozygosity (Ho) ranges from 0.2632 (D18S51) to 0.8333 (vWA) and is lower than the expected heterozygosity (He) for 12 of the 13 loci analyzed.
The genetic relationships of the Arrernte with Middle Eastern, East Asian, South Asian and Indian populations were analyzed by distance-based methods, including Neighbor-Joining trees and nonmetric multidimensional scaling.
In addition, the genetic contribution of the populations included in the analysis to the Arrernte gene pool was estimated utilizing weighted least square coefficients. Although the Arrernte population exhibits a remarkable level of genetic differentiation, results of the phylogeographic analyses based on autosomal microsatellite data suggest a certain degree of genetic relatedness between the Arrernte tribe of Australia and populations from the Indian subcontinent.
In contrast, the STR diversity analyses failed to detect substantial East Asian contribution to the genetic background of the Arrernte group. Am. J. Hum. Biol., 2008.
quote:Originally posted by cassiterides:
quote:Originally posted by Troll Patrol: Do you like excessive body hair?
Australoids have more body hair than Caucasoids.
Arrernte aborigine tribesman -
Are you saying the australian aborigines are ''cold-adapted''?
Your theories are bogus.
1)." Autraliods" are early Eurasians. They moved into Eurasia and from there furher east. Hg C, D arose/ mutated in Eurasia and coastal Arabian Peninsula.
2). While other early migrationist like Negritos migrated via the coastal route.
You lose again. Keep trying!
Stanley H. Ambrose Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois,
Journal of Human Evolution (1998) 34, 623–651
Late Pleistocene human population bottlenecks, volcanic winter, and differentiation of modern humans
The cause, timing and location of bottleneck releases
If population release was due to the natural increase (logistic population growth) of disease-resistant populations following epidemics, then growth could have been relatively rapid, a function of the intrinsic rate of increase of disease-resistant popula-tions, and the duration of the bottleneck relatively brief. Its date could have been at any time, but would presumably have been relatively soon after the bottleneck. Release could have occurred wherever disease-resistant individuals survived.
If release was due to natural increase in founder population size after dispersing across land bridges or narrow straits (Lahr, 1996; Lahr & Foley, 1994) then release dates would vary from 70–50 ka for the early Australasian dispersal, to 45 ka for the second Levantine dispersal. In the epidemic and dispersal scenarios the dura-tion of the bottleneck would have been brief.
If bottlenecks were caused by the cold, arid climate of isotope stage 4 then their duration was approximately 10 ka and release could have been as late as 60 ka.
The failure of early modern humans to survive in the Levant during the early last glacial implies they were not yet physiologically and/or behaviorally well-adapted to cold climates and Palearctic environments, or at least not as well-adapted as neanderthals.
The Multiple Dispersals model (Figure 3) proposes that a population bottleneck occurred during oxygen isotope stage 6, when cold, dry climates caused isolation and differentiation of populations within Africa.
If bottlenecks were caused by the cold, arid climate of isotope stage 4 then their duration was approximately 10 ka and release could have been as late as 60 ka.
Global climate change could have reduced populations during the early last ice age, oxygen isotope stage 4
... As noted above, the replacement of modern humans by neander- thals in the Levant, suggests African modern humans were rather poorly-adapted to cold climates.
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